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The Rose 



4i>se> 



HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE; 



GATHERED 



FROM VARIOUS SOURCES. 



V 3 



By HENRY SHAW, 
h 

TOWER GROVE. 



SAINT LOUIS: 

R. P. Studley & Co., Printers and Binders. 

1879. 
07 



C9 



Rosa, from r/ios. red, in the language of Armorica, 
{a province of ancient Gaul.) 

Rodox, Greek, and 

Rosa, Latin. 



Historical, 



SHE ROSE has been a favorite flower from 
^-r time immemorial, among the civilized nations of 
Europe and Asia. Many ages ago Anacreon sang 
the praises of the Hose. He calls it "the most 
beautiful of flowers," "the delight of the gods," 
"the favorite of the Muses," and since that time it 
has been denominated the Queen of Flowers. It is 
frequently spoken of in Holy Writ, and Homer often 
refers to the Rose, both in the Iliad and the Odyssy. 
It may be said to be the oldest of celebrated flowers, 



THE ROSE. 



and, in the impassioned strains of the ancients, we 
find it associated with the Lily of the Valley, as ex- 
pressive of all that is pleasing to the senses, and ren- 
ovating to the mind. 

In the mythologic ages it was sacred as the flower 
of young affection and endearment, and of mature 
love— the flower of Cupid and Venus, and stripping 
this of the mythological phraseology, which in all 
cases was a fictitious mantle, thrown around some- 
thing previously felt, no similitude of any flower could 
be more appropriate. The rosebud, the sweetest 
object that appears in the garden, is typical of all 
beginnings from the issue of which joy and pleasure 
maybe expected. 

" Ah see the Virgin Rose, how sweetly shee 
Dost first peep forth with bashful modestie, 
That fairer seems, the less you see her may ! 
Lo I see soon after, how more bold and free 
Her bared bosom she doth broad display ! 
Lo ! see soon after how she fades and falls away!" 

Spenser's Faerie Queen— 1589. 

The early dawn ; young schemes and projects ; young 
life; young love, and a hundred other associations, all 
of a delightful kind, are associated with the Rosebud. 
There seems a physical attraction in it beyond all 



THE ROSE. 



flowers in every stage of its growth, and an attraction 
which addresses itself strongly to the feelings. When 
roses are in full bloom, they certainly are the most 
delightful flowers the amateur can cultivate ; the Rose 
is the most obedient to his labor, and rewards the 
cultivator richty for his care and skill. Still, there are 
persons who share with the black beetle a positive 
dislike for the Rose. Among those who have taken so 
prominent a part in public life as to have attracted 
the attention of history, is the famous Chevalier de 
Guise, who could not smell a rose without feeling 
uncomfortable; and Vinieri, one of the Doges of 
Venice, suffered under the same inconvenience for 
the enjoyment of the garden. Anne of Austria, wife 
of Louis Xm, could not even look at a rose in a 
picture without being seized with tantrums. 

In the East there is still the belief that the first 
Rose was formed by a tear of the Prophet Mahomet, 
but nations of more cool and dispassionate imagina- 
tions have sometimes admitted that its origin was 
lost in obscurity. Roses were used in very early 
history among the most potent ingredients of love 
philters. They seem to have been imported by the 
Romans from Egypt until the age of Domitian. 



THE ROSE. 



Antiochus slept upon a bed of rose leaves; Mark 
Anthony begged that Cleopatra would cover his tomb 
with these flowers, and, mea rasa was a favorite term 
with Roman lovers. Homer has adorned the shield 
of Achilles, and the helmet of Hector with roses. 
Among the Greeks it was customary to leave bequests 
for the maintenance of rose gardens over the grave 
of the testator, and at Torcallo, near Venice, an 
inscription may still be seen, which shows that the 
fashion was adopted in Italy. In Turkey, a stone 
rose is often sculptured above the graves of unmar- 
ried women. A charming bas-relief on the tomb of 
Madame de la Live, who died at the age of twenty- 
one, represents Time mowing a Rose with his scythe. 

According to Indian mythology, Pagodastri, one of 
the wives of Vishnu, was found in arose. Zoroaster is 
said to have made a rose-tree spring out of the earth 
and bud and bloom in the presence of Darius, who 
had called upon him to perform a miracle. In one 
of the books attributed to Solomon, eternal wisdom 
is compared to rose-trees at Jericho. Princess Nou- 
mahal, the most lovely lady in the harem of the Great 
Mogul, had a canal filled with rose-water, and rowed 
about in it with her august consort, the heat of the 



THE KOSE. 



sun disengaged the essential oil from the water, and 
their majesties having observed the fact, invented Otto 
of Roses. When the Soldan, Saladin, who had so much 
trouble with our hard -listed King Richard, and his 
turbulent christian friends, took Jerusalem in 1188, 
he would not enter the Temple, which he profanely- 
called a mosque, until he had its walls washed with 
rose-water; and Samet assures us that five hundred 
camels were no more than sufficient to carry the 
purifying fluid. Also after the taking of Constanti- 
nople by* Mahomet II, in 1455, the church of Saint 
Sophia was solemnly purified with rose-water before 
it was converted into a mosque. The high priest of 
the Hebrews wore a crown of roses when he offered 
up certain sacrifices under the Mosaic dispensation, 
and it was perhaps in remembrance of this fact, that 
the Synod of Xismes, which was held in the third 
century, enjoined every Jew to wear a rose on his 
breast, as a distinguishing mark of his inferiority. 
In many countries, the Jews still celebrate the festi- 
val of Eastern Flowers; during which they ornament 
their lamps, chandeliers and beds with roses. 

When Maria Antoinette passed through Xancy, on 
her way to be married to Lewis XVI, the ladies of 



THE ROSE. 



Lorraine prepared her a bed strewed with roses. In 
the middle ages roses were held so precious in France 
that a royal license was necessary to grow them ; 
Charlemagne, recommended the cultivation of the 
Kose in his " Capitulation." The Persians of Shiraz 
stop their wine bottles with roses to give the wine a 
pleasing perfume ; and during the festival of Abrizan, 
which takes place during the equinox, Persian ladies 
throw roses at each other when they visit. " On 
entering the gardens of the royal palace of Persia," 
says Sir Robert Porter, "you are struck with the 
appearance of rose-trees full fourteen feet high, laden 
with thousands of roses, blooming and diffusing a del- 
icacy of perfume, that imbued the whole atmosphere; 
but in these delicious gardens of Negaristan, the 
eye and the olfactories are not the only senses regaled 
by the presence of the Rose ; the ear is enchanted by 
the wild and beautiful notes of multitudes of night- 
ingales, whose warbling seem to increase in melod}" 
and softness with the unfolding of their favorite flow- 
ers. Here, indeed, is the genuine country of the 
nightingale and the Rose. 

At Rome the Golden Rose was consecrated by the 
Pope and given to some prince or princess as a mark 



THE ROSE. 



of the Sovereign Pontiff's favor. Urban V gave 
the Golden Eose to Joan, Queen of Sicily, in 136S. 
Henry VIII of England received a golden Rose from 
Julius II, and from Leo X. Roses were often, in the 
days of chivalry, worn by the cavaliers in tourna- 
ments, as an emblem of their devotion to love and 
beauty. 



THE ROSE. 



11 I 



ms 



'HE habits and colors of the several varieties of 
; the Eose are almost without end, and yet there 
is great beauty in each of them. Then the perfume 
with which they embalm the zephyr, as it plays gently 
over them, diffusing an odor most delightful to the 
sense, and exhilarating to the mind. In most in- 
stances the odor of a flower dies along with it, but 
not so with the Eose, for some leaves gathered by the 
writer at Tower Grove, in 1852, and preserved in a 
jar, are now, (1877), still fragrant. We find it yield- 
ing a variety of fragrant liquors, and the attar of 
roses especially, when prepared in the valley of the 
Ganges, or in Cashmire, where square miles are 
devoted to the growth of this flower, is now almost 
the only substance which, weight for weight, i£ more 
valuable than gold. 



12 THE ROSE. 



The shrub varies in size, usually from one to six or 
eight feet ; the colors are red, white, yellow, purple- 
striped, and in almost numberless shades and vari- 
eties; the flowers single, semi-double and double; the 
odor is universally grateful ; the? green rose is a mon- 
strosity, without fragrance. 

The Rose is cultivated in every garden , from that 
of the most humble peasant to that of persons of 
rank and wealth, but, will not grow to perfection 
in the smoky, dusty atmosphere of large towns. 
Some species, as Rosa centtfolia, damascena, <6c, are 
also cultivated by commercial gardeners, on a large 
scale, for distilling rose-water, or for making attar 
or essential oil of Roses; six pounds of rose-leaves 
will impregnate, by distillation, a gallon of water 
strongly, with their odor, but a hundred pounds 
affords scarcely half an ounce of attar. This most 
delicious of all perfumed essences is obtained by the 
simple distillation of rose-leaves. In our climate 
Roses are not sufficiently scented to produce the 
odoriferous essential oil. Among the most favorable 
countries for the production of the most highly 
scented Roses is the middle portion of European 
Turkey, at the base of the southern slope of the Bal- 



THE ROSE. 13 



kan mountains, in localities where the Roses are pro- 
tected against all winds except those from the south ; 
and the flowers thus attain a luxuriance of perfume 
and growth peculiar to these favored regions. The 
center of the cultivation and distillation of the Rose 
is the town of Kezanlik, situated in the province of 
that name, and is watered by many mountain 
streams that furnish a suitable water for the distilla- 
tion of the precious attar. The numerous villages 
of the province, inhabited by Turks and Christians 
employed in the cultivation of the Rose, all live in 
peace together and prosper; finding by experience 
that it is better and more wise to work, than to waste 
time in religious and political quarrels. The great 
harvest commences May loth, and lasts until June 
5th or 10th; the gathering is done in the morning 
before sun-rise, so as to have the benefit of all the 
fresh perfume of the flowers, which might be drawn 
off by the heat of day. Every Rose farmer has 
his own small, roughly constructed stills for pro- 
ducing the otto or attar immediately after picking 
the flowers ; and thousands of industrious workers are 
thus occupied, earning in the single short period of 
twenty days the product of a year's labor, cultiva- 
ting and taking care of the growing plants. The 



14 THE ROSE. 



total yearly production of the province of Kazanlik 
is from 3500 to 6000 pounds, the product of 1866. but 
in 1872 only 1700 pounds could be obtained. When 
distillation is over, the farmers come to the great 
commercial centers of Constantinople and Adri- 
anople to sell their products. 

Unfortunate Kazanlik! ravaged by the horrors of 
war ; in place of quiet villages reposing in the valleys 
of the Balkans, presents at this time (1877) a scene of 
ruin and devastation ; the dwellings of the inhabi- 
tants the churches of the Christians, and the mosques 
of the Moslem, are now heaps of smouldering ruins. 
The Kose cultivators slaughtered, fled, or suffering 
from pestilence and famine ; the Rose gardens, once 
so delightful, are now overrun by hordes of Muscovite 
soldiers, or serve as pens for the horses of the 
Cossack. 



THE ROSE. 15 



l i { \u tfeojptapfeg of tte f^oss. 



tOSES in a wild state are natives of Persia, India 
China, Barbary, Europe, and North America, 
and confined to the northern hemisphere, never 
having been found wild very near to, or south of the 
Equator. The vast continent of Australia, rich in 
botanical treasures as it is, has not yet revealed to us 
a single species. 

Among the wild roses of North America are Bosa 
Hudsonensis, found on the shores of Hudson's Bay, 
within the polar circle, where it produces clusters of 
double pale flowers. Bosa lucida is found in the 
marshes of Carolina. Bosa Woodsii is found on the 
banks of the Missouri along with B. Carolina. Bosa 
evratina grows on the marshy banks of the rivulets of 
Virginia, and is extremely difficult of culture in gar- 
dens. Bosa parrifolia is a diminutive shrub found on 
the rising grounds of Pennsylvania. Bosa setigerais 



16 THE ROSE. 



found in South Carolina, and R. lavigata, a climb- 
ing species, inhabiting the woods of Georgia, and was 
used by the dusky belles of the forest to adorn their 
hair. The Rose of Mexico, Rosa Montezuma, is a 
sweet scented thornless species, which abounds in the 
parts of Cerro Ventoso, near San Pedro, where it was 
discovered by Messieurs Humboldt and Bonpland. 

Asia can boast of a greater number of species of the 
Rose than the rest of the earth united, thirty roses 
that admit of accurate definition having been al- 
ready established. Of these the vast empire of China, 
where both agriculture and horticulture are arts in 
high estimation, has a claim to fifteen. The southern 
provinces of Asia, comprising those of India, offer 
many curious species to our observation. In the gar- 
dens of Kandahar, Samarcand, and Ispahan, the Rosa 
arborea is cultivated in great profusion by the Per- 
sians; this shrub, which attains a considerable size, is 
covered during spring with an abundance of white 
and scented blossoms. 

The Rosa Damascena, transported to Europe from 
Damascus by the Crusaders, affording to our gardens 
an infinite number of beautiful varieties, adorns the 



THE ROSE. 17 



sandy deserts of Syria with its sweet and brightly 
tinted flowers. 

In Europe even Iceland and Lapland produce the 
Sweet Briar, blooming almost under the snows of 
those severe climates. Six species are indigenous to 
Britain, including the well known Dog Kose. The 
Swiss mountains and Alpine chain are in general rich 
in native roses. In the eastern and southern coun- 
tries of Europe, rose trees abound; Italy and Spain 
have several distinct species. The Rosa semjjervirens, 
common in the Balearic Islands, grows spontaneous- 
ly throughout the south of Europe, and in Barbary, its 
foliage of glossy green, is intermingled with a profu- 
sion of small white highly scented flowers. 

For France nineteen are claimed by the Flora of 
Decandolle; in the southern provinces is found R- 
Eglantina, whose golden petals are sometimes varied 
into a rich orange. In the forests of Auvergne we 
find the Rosa cinnamomum, which derives its name 
from the color of its branches; its flowers being- 
small, red and solitary; the Champagne Kose, a beau- 
tiful miniature shrub, adorns the fertile valleys in the 
neighborhood of Dijon, with its very double but small 

2 



18 THE ROSE. 



crimson blossoms, and the Bosa Gallica, is one that 
has afforded varieties of every hue, including the 
Province Roses, white, pink, and crimson. 

The genus Bosa comprises about a hundred distinct 
species, a few of which and their varieties, are grown 
in the Missouri Botanical Garden. 

Bosa bracteata. — The Macartney Rose. 
" spinosissima. — The Scotch Rose. 
14 lucida. — The Burnett Rose. 

44 Centifolia. — The hundred-leaved or Cabbage 
Rose; its varieties include the Single 
and Double Moss and the White Moss 
Rose. Provins Roses are of this class. 

" Hibemica. — The Irish and B. Lutea, the Yel- 
low Rose. 
44 rubiginosa. — The Eglantine or Sweet Briar. 

i; Indica. — The common China, or monthly Ben- 
gal which has many varieties. 

44 Indica odorata. — The tea scented; of this class 
are the popular Marshal Neil and Duchess 
of Edinburg Roses. 

" multiflora. — The Noisette, of American ori- 
gin. 

44 Banksia.—Bosa galica, the French. 



THE ROSE. 19 



Rosa Bourboniana — Isle of Bourbon Roses. Some 
of the most beautiful of Autumnal 
Roses belong to this class, the Autumn 
indeed being their peculiar season. The 
first plant was introduced to France in 
1822, and- having attracted the attention 
of the leading rose growers of Paris, they 
set to work and propagated it exten- 
sively. From July to September they 
are constantly in bloom at Tower Grove. 

Climbing Roses are Rosa semper virens, Rosa arven- 
sis, the Ayrshire, Ruga, Multiflora, Rosa Russelliana* 
the Boursault Rose; among the American species is 
the Prairie Rose. Rosa setigera of Michaux, a splen- 
ded native rose of the Southern and Western States, 
of which about twenty varieties are in cultivation. 

Rosa Hibernica, with prickles of stem, rather hook- 
ed, leaflets eliptical, smooth. Discovered and describ- 
ed by John Templeton, Esq., in the county of Down, 
about Belfast harbor, where it grows abundantly, 
flowering from the early part of June to the middle 
of November. The discoverer of this Rose, thus be- 
came entitled to the liberal reward of £50 offered 
by the patrons of botany at Dublin, for the discovery 
of any new Irish plant. The stem is six feet high, 



20 THE ROSE. 



and much branched: flowers pale blush colored; 
fruit scarlet, smooth and globose. Doctor Taylor also 
found other native Irish Roses of distinct species. 
The sweet briar, or Eglantine of the poets, has the un- 
der leaflets clothed with reddish viscid glands, the 
seat of a delightful fragrance. Almost all the culti- 
vated open ground sorts delight in a rich moist soil, 
and an open situation free from smoke and dust, 
where they are much finer than when they are upon 
a dry soil or in a shady situation. 

Bosa Laurenciana, Fairy roses. These beautiful 
little plants of sixteen varieties, arc well worthy our 
attention, from their dwarfness and perfect symmetry 
of form, often flowering when not more than six inches 
high, and for the beautiful color of their diminutive 
rosebuds; they are named in honor of Miss Lawrence 
who published in 1799 a collection of engravings of 
the Rose accurately drawn, and elegantly colored; 
this lady's name is perpetuated in this class, Lauren- 
ciana. Bosa moschata, the Musk Rose, a very beau- 
tiful class of single Roses, very fragrant with flowers 
in bunches. The musky odor is very perceptible, 
even at some distance from the plant, particularly in 
the evening-. 



THE ROSE. 21 



" When each inconstant breeze that blows, 
Steals essence from the musky Rose." 

It was formerly much valued for its fragrance when 
musk was a fashionable perfume. 

Loudon gives the description of 97 distinct species, 
and the names of 468 varieties that he had seen in 
cultivation in 1840. 




THE ROSE. 23 



n T 1874, 



|jk IXTY years ago the Rose list of Decemet was 
(g^: considered very full; it included 300 roses. In 
1830 we knew about 2,500 varieties ; we have now 
more than double that number, and this fact is main- 
ly owing to the seedlings by hybridisations, and the 
intelligent selections of French florists. 

If France is not the native country of the Rose 
which like the vine was born in Asia, it is in France 
that the vine and the Rose have found the soil, the 
climate and the care which have made their fortunes. 
More than 5000 Roses! and how many simple ad- 
mirers of nature, with the poets at their head, seem 
to think them only one; the Rose of Homer, of Vir- 
gil, of Delille, and of St. Lambert. But of the poets' 
Rose we have no picture, no actual record. There is 



24 THE EOjE. 



every reason to suppose however, it was the Rosa 
. :he Hundred-leaved Eose. which the poets 
sang, and it was almost the only one to which the 
painters paid homage: since Redoute (a celebrated 
painter of flowers their pencils have delineated 
many of the lovely varieties which our gardens have * 
produced: but look at the paintings of the 16th, 17th 
and ISth centuries, and you will see none but the 
Cabbage (100-leav- the English White and 

Red I ttd Lancaster and the Yellow Rose 

which only became really double about a hundred 
years since. We must admit the Cabbage Rose, as 
the Dutch formed it. has never yet been surpassed 
by any of the productions of our florists, none had 
even approached it: and it has the advantage of flow- 
ering twice a year like the Roses of Pactum, which 
were probably a kind of four seasons Rose. In almost 
every country the--- roses are apparently as old as the 
hills: but it is from the Asiatic hundred-petaled rose 
tribe that man has everywhere his first delight. 

The Rose of Provence, down to the time of the cru- 
sades at least, the only famous rose in France, was 
the first of these oriental visitor.- acclimated ami gsf 
us: the Rose of Damascus, which has much of their 



THE ROSE. 



blood in its veins, was brought to Fran 1 by 

the Count De Brie, and the neighborhood of Brie. 
Conte Robert, is still the great field from which 
France supplies Europe and America with r - 
The old English Be - tighter or cousin to the 

Provence Rose. Their Portland itself is a spec: 
Cab v 9 — what rendered it fa: 

was its flowering twice. Where did the Dutch find 
the true hundred petaled Rose': Perhaps, like us. they 
got it from the Moors in Spain, or the merchant 
Smyrna. Wherever they obtair. . iginal. it 

was their art which developed all its beauties. 

Till nearly the end ot the reign the XIV 

the gardens of Europe depended upon the same 
source— improving the known varieties by grafting, 
without raising seedlings, and making scarcely any 
new acquisitions. In 1735 the Fairy Rose. Pompon, 
was discovered in a wood near Dijon: it was n 
much beauty then. The -sue of the Cab- 

bout the same time, 
thought that Miller, the learned English ga: 
tained it in 1727. The Count ulis intiv 

it into Paris about twenty years after that date. 

But an unex' 3 now app: _ All 



26 THE ROSE. 



was changed when the Tea Kose reached ns from 
China, and the Bengal Kose from India. These pre- 
cious shrubs, near relations, however, of the Dog Kose 
of our own woods, were the richest presents that the 
soil of India could give us. We possessed the finest 
of roses, but they only blossomed during a few days at 
the end of the spring ; the new comers decorated our 
gardens to the end of autumn with an abundance 
and freshness of foliage and flowers hitherto unap- 
proached. 

These were, however, only half the treasures scat- 
tered by Flora over the gardens which she loves. 
The marriage of the old with the fruitful young rose 
was soon consummated, and from that time the wand 
of the fairy multiplied the beauties in the hands of 
our ablest florists. Hybridisation, and seedlings aid- 
ing each other, there is scarcely a limit to the caprice 
of the most daring cultivator. 

It was about 1789 that the Bengal and Tea Roses 
became well known. The Banksian climbing Rose 
was only brought from China in 1807. The Bourbon 
Rose appeared somewhat later; the Xoisette had then 
already arrived from America. 



THE ROSE. 27 



Let us not be ungrateful to our old roses ; at the 
very moment when an unknown field was opened up 
to us in the East, the Portland, cultivated byMons. 
Telieur, of Vilie sur Ars, or perhaps by Mons. Sou- 
chet, gave us that admirable Kose du Roi, so vigorous, 
so hardy, so well formed, so delicious in color and 
perfume. 

The free-flowering Rose of China, bloomed for the 
first time in France in 1812; the English knew it be- 
fore that date ; how many names and dates should we 
have to inscribe, to perpetuate the memory of the 
conquests of the Rosary during the last fifty or sixty 
years'? 

Many exquisite beauties have been brought by the 
art of man from beneath the veil which nature had 
thrown over them; but the most splendid remains 
yet to be discovered, and the victory is not hopeless; 
this is not the Blue Rose but the climbing Cabbage 
Rose. A simple amateur discovered the Rose du Roi ; 
this ought to give hope to every one who possesses a 
garden, and a little leisure to cultivate the worship of 
Flora. 



28 THE ROSE. 



A rural feast of some parts of France is called the 
festival of the Koses, in which the best behaved 
maiden of the town or village is annually crown- 
ed with Koses. The Persians have also an an- 
nual festival of Koses, which consists of bands of 
youths parading the streets with music, and offering 
Roses to all they meet, for which they receive a tri- 
fling gratuity. Rarities in Roses are held in high 
estimation all over the world. At the Botanical 
Garden of the East Indian Island of Java. Dr. R. H. 
Scheffer, the Director, states that there the Teas, 
Noisettes and Bourbons grow well, and are always in 
bloom without ceasing. The Hybrid Perpetuals flow- 
er best on the hills. The rich Chinese residing in 
Java are great Rose buyers, and do not mind paying 
25 florins for a young plant of the Green Rose, or for 
a Marshal Neil. 

War of the Roses in English history, the well 
known feuds that prevailed between the houses of 
York and Lancaster, are so called from the emblems 
adopted by their respective partisans; the adherents 
of the house of York having the white, those of Lan- 
caster the red Rose, as their distinguishing symbol. 
These wars orm-mated with the descendants of Ed- 



THE ROSE. 29 



ward the III, and after extending over a period of 
eighty years, during which England formed an almost 
uninterrupted scene of bloodshed and devastation, 
were finally put an end to by the victory of Henry 
Tudor, Earl of Kichmond, over Richard III in 1485. 
The victor uniting in his own person the title of Lan- 
caster through his mother, and that of York by his 
marriage with the daughter of Edward VI. Since 
that period the Rose has been the emblem of England, 
as the thistle and shamrock are respectively the sym- 
bols of Scotland and Ireland. 




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